Son of Revolutionary war Captain John Steel Jr., William Steel was born in Carlisle, PA in 1780.

Marker

In 1802, William began his ministry as a Methodist Episcopal minister for the Baltimore conference. During the 1810’s he changed to become a Protestant Episcopal minister living in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. He married his only wife, Mary Catherine James, in 1805 in Dumfries Virginia, and they had 13 children. He joined the Diocese of Tennessee in 1837 and lived in Fayette County Tennessee. After a two year stay he moved his family to the Republic of Texas in 1839 to the Caddo Lake area where he joined the Diocese of Louisiana. During his time in Texas he founded the Border Episcopal Church, and his works in Harrison County, Texas later evolved into the Trinity Espicopal Church. Some people say that he preached the first Episcopal sermon in the Republic of Texas. His body currently resides in the Mimosa-Hall Plantation cemetery in Marshall, Texas.

His tombstone reads,

“He began to preach the unchangeable riches of Christ in 1802. He had fought a good fight, He had finished his fight, he had finished his course, he had kept the faith, and at the last day he shall receive a crown of righteousness, which the lord, the righteous judge, has laid up and may give unto all who love him approvingly.”